USA's sports-themed drama "Necessary Roughness" returns for its third season on Wednesday (June 12), and pro-football psychologist Dr. Dani Santino (Callie Thorne) is facing shake-ups in both her personal and professional lives.

One big change is the arrival of the charming Connor McClane (John Stamos), owner of V3, a New York-based sports and entertainment management company (headquartered in a lavish, shiny, colorful, two-story set built at the show's filming location near Atlanta)

Stamos will be sticking around for a while, giving Thorne time to get over her nerves at meeting him. Oh, and there was some crying.

"I cried tears of joy," she tells assembled reporters, including Zap2it, during an interview in the show's production offices. "When they mentioned he was thinking about it, I started to breathe a little heavy. I was trying to think of anybody we knew in common that maybe I could call them and tell them to call him and say how awesome I was to work with and how much fun we would have ..."

Confessing she was a fan of Stamos' since his "General Hospital" days, Thorne wouldn't mind a little on-screen romance.

"Come on," she says. "I'm pushing for it. It doesn't mean I get it."

But there is a little something-something going on.

"The idea that we're butting heads, but there's something underneath, is what the allure is," she says. "And because he and I get along petty well off-camera. I think that shows up on camera. I hope it does. Everybody gets along with him; everybody has chemistry with him."

Their first meeting took place during shooting at a baseball field, and Thorne recalls freaking out a little when her assistant told her Stamos was there.

"I was nervous," she says, "because I respect him, and I get nervous around people I respect. And also, I get nervous about really funny people. We were standing alongside where we were shooting, and he just strolled up half in character outfit and half in his own jeans.

"And the way he treated me, with such warmth. I think he already knew that the key to my heart was to make me laugh. So he already said something that was very self-deprecating. I laughed, and he pushed on me and gave me a good nudge.

"I knew from right there, just from that first hug and our first conversation, that he was very hip to the ways of 'Necessary Roughness,' but that his energy was going to propel us in another way. And I was right."

But fans expecting Dani and Connor to fall in love on first sight will be disappointed.

"It's the first show in a long time that I've had no romantic involvement," Stamos says. "Which is nice, I guess."

For him, it was more about putting on his big-boy pants (or, in Connor's case, a sleek, dark Dolce & Gabbana suit).

"I think you get caught up in the Peter Pan syndrome," he says. "You're 50 years old; you've got to start playing some adult characters. When this came around, it seemed like the perfect fit. The first thing they said was, 'You're going to be [the boss] on the show.' I said, 'Sold.' The way the character turned out is this interesting, duplicitous guy who you think one side's good and one side's bad, but you don't know if it's good or bad.

"As the show goes on, there are moments where you go, 'Oh, he is the bad side of those two guys'" -- the other guy being Connor's right-hand man, Troy Cutler (David Anders). "By the end of the episode, it's, 'Maybe he has a point.' This is what he believes. I think what's going to end up is whether the audience thinks I'm up to nefarious activities or not. Connor believes in what he's doing and is doing the best."